Patent Grant
7433492
The invention disclosed herein relates generally to printing systems, and more particularly to a method and system for reducing ink consumption required for printing by printing systems in mail processing systems.
Mail processing systems for printing postage indicia on envelopes and other forms of mail pieces have long been well known and have enjoyed considerable commercial success. There are many different types of mail processing systems, ranging from relatively small units that handle only one mail piece at a time, to large, multi-functional units that can process thousands of mail pieces per hour in a continuous stream operation. The larger mailing machines often include different modules that automate the processes of producing mail pieces, each of which performs a different task on the mail piece. The mail piece is conveyed downstream utilizing a transport mechanism, such as rollers or a belt, to each of the modules. Such modules could include, for example, a singulating module, i.e., separating a stack of mail pieces such that the mail pieces are conveyed one at a time along the transport path, a moistening/sealing module, i.e., wetting and closing the glued flap of an envelope, a weighing module, and a metering module, i.e., applying evidence of postage to the mail piece. The exact configuration of the mailing machine is, of course, particular to the needs of the user.
Typically, a control device, such as, for example, a microprocessor, performs user interface and controller functions for the mailing machine. Specifically, the control device provides all user interfaces, executes control of the mailing machine and print operations, calculates postage for debit based upon rate tables, provides the conduit for the Postal Security Device (PSD) to transfer postage indicia to the printer, operates with peripherals for accounting, printing and weighing, and conducts communications with a data center for postage funds refill, software download, rates download, and market-oriented data capture. The control device, in conjunction with an embedded PSD, constitutes the system meter that satisfies U.S. information-based indicia postage meter requirements and other international postal regulations regarding closed system meters. The United States Postal Service (USPS) initiated the Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP) to enhance the security of postage metering by supporting new methods of applying postage to mail. The USPS has published draft specifications for the IBIP. The requirements for a closed system are defined in the “Performance Criteria for Information-Based Indicia and Security Architecture for Closed IBI Postage Metering System (PCIBI-C), dated Jan. 12, 1999. A closed system is a system whose basic components are dedicated to the production of information-based indicia and related functions, similar to an existing, traditional postage meter. A closed system, which may be a proprietary device used alone or in conjunction with other closely related, specialized equipment, includes the indicia print mechanism.
The PCIBI-C specification defines the requirements for the indicium to be applied to mail produced by closed systems. An example of such an indicium is illustrated in
Since postal services accept indicia printed by mail processing systems as conclusive proof of payment of the amount of postage indicated, such devices are in effect machines for printing money. As a result postal services have imposed high standards for the print quality of indicia images produced by such machines, including, for example, resolution of the image. Even if an indicium is valid, if the verification equipment is unable to read the indicium due to poor print quality, verification will not be possible. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the printing systems utilized by the mail processing systems are capable of consistently producing high quality images.
In recent years, ink jet printing systems have been utilized in mail processing systems. Ink jet printing systems, as used herein, includes any form of printing wherein print control signals control a print mechanism to eject ink drops to produce a matrix of pixels, i.e. picture elements, to represent an image. An ink supply, typically in the form of a reservoir, supplies ink to the print mechanism. As the ink supply is depleted, it must be replaced by an operator. The cost for periodically replacing the ink supply can be significant, especially for high volume mail processing systems that can process 20,000 mail pieces or more per hour and typically operate for twenty-four hours every day for extended periods of time. As such, it is desirable to utilize the minimum amount of ink necessary for each indicium, while still meeting the print quality requirements to ensure each indicium can be read. The printing system can be set to a resolution of, for example, 200×300 dpi, i.e., 200 per inch horizontal resolution and 300 dots per inch vertical resolution. This resolution will provide sufficient contrast with respect to a typical medium, i.e., mail piece, upon which an indicium will be printed, such as, for example, a white envelope. This resolution, however, may not provide sufficient contrast if a darker medium is used, such as, for example, manila or gray envelopes, where a higher resolution in the vertical direction is required. For darker colored mail pieces, it may be necessary to have a higher resolution, such as, for example, 200×600 dpi, to provide sufficient contrast for the indicium to be properly read. Setting the printing system to the higher resolution, however, uses more ink per indicium than the lower resolution. Thus, if the resolution is set based on the darker medium, it will result in a significant amount of ink being wasted when printing on the lighter medium, as the extra ink is not necessary to meet the contrast requirements. The extra unnecessary ink required can significantly increase the cost of operating the mailing machine.
Thus, there exists a need for a method and system that reduces the amount of ink consumption required for printing while still meeting the required print quality standards for different mediums.
The present invention alleviates the problems associated with the prior art and provides methods and systems that reduce the amount of ink consumption required for printing while still meeting the required print quality standards for different mediums.
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, a printing system is provided that dynamically adjusts the resolution at which printing will occur based on the lightness or darkness of the medium upon which the image will be printed. The reflectivity of the medium upon which an image is to be printed is determined, and hence the relative lightness or darkness of the medium. The resolution at which the image will be printed is adjusted based on the determined reflectivity of the medium. For lighter colored mediums, sufficient contrast between the printed image and the medium upon which the image is printed can be maintained utilizing a lower resolution, while a higher resolution must be utilized to maintain sufficient contrast for darker colored mediums. Since the resolution is adjusted for each different medium, it is not necessary to utilize the higher resolution for all mediums to ensure sufficient contrast is always provided, thereby reducing the amount of ink used by the printing system while still ensuring sufficient contrast between the printed image and the medium upon which the image is printed.
Therefore, it should now be apparent that the invention substantially achieves all the above aspects and advantages. Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Moreover, the aspects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings illustrate a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention. As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts.
In describing the present invention, reference is made to the drawings, wherein there is seen in
According to embodiments of the present invention, mail processing system 20 can dynamically adjust the resolution with which each indicium is printed to ensure sufficient contrast with the medium upon which each indicium is printed, thereby reducing the ink consumption required for printing while still meeting print quality standards. Mail processing system 20 includes a reflectance meter 30, that includes one or more light sources 32 and one or more photodetectors 34. Reflectance meter 30 could be, for example, a spectrophotometer. As a mail piece is being transported by transport 28 past the reflectance meter 30, light is applied to the mail piece by the light source 32. The light reflected from the mail piece is received by the photodetectors 34. Based on the amount of reflected light received by the photodetectors 34, the relative darkness or lightness of the mail piece can be determined. The amount of reflected light is less for a darker mail piece than a lighter mail piece, as the darker mail piece will absorb part of the applied light from the light source 32, while a lighter mail piece will have less absorption of the applied light and therefore more reflected light.
The reflected light signals received by the photodetectors 34 are processed by the reflectance meter 30 to determine the lightness or darkness of the mail piece. Such processing could include, for example, amplification of the signals by conventional amplifiers to provide a range of voltages that correspond to the amount of reflectance between 0 and 100%. The reflectance, as determined by the reflectance meter 30, is provided to the controller 24. Alternatively, processing of the reflected light signals could be done by the controller 24. In either case, once the controller 24 has either received or determined the reflectance of the mail piece, the controller 24 can determine the relative lightness or darkness of the mail piece and, based on the lightness or darkness of the mail piece, determine if the resolution for an indicium that will be printed on the mail piece can be a low resolution, such as, for example, 200×300 dpi, or a high resolution, such as, for example, 200×600 dpi. It should be understood while the present invention is being described utilizing resolutions of 200×300 dpi and 200×600 dpi, these resolutions are exemplary in nature and any resolution values desired could be utilized. Determination of the resolution could be performed, for example, utilizing a threshold number for the reflectivity. Thus, for example, if the reflectivity is less than 50%, indicating that more than half of the applied light was absorbed by the mail piece, the controller 24 can determine that the mail piece is a darker medium that requires a higher resolution, e.g., 200×600 dpi, to ensure sufficient contrast of the indicium with the mail piece. Conversely, if the reflectivity is greater than or equal to 50%, indicating that most of the light was reflected by the mail piece, the controller 24 can determine that the mail piece is a lighter medium, and a low resolution, e.g., 200×300 dpi, will provide sufficient contrast of the indicium with the mail piece. Alternatively, the reflectivity could be determined, for example, by controller 24 utilizing a look-up table stored in memory 40. Reflectivity could also be determined based on comparison with a reference medium, especially in the case when large batches of the same type of mail piece will be processed. In this scenario, before a large batch of mail is processed, a reference medium, such as, for example, a standard white envelope, could be processed through the system 20 (preferably without actually printing an indicium thereon or just a test indicium that has no value) and the reflectivity of the reference medium set as a benchmark. A mail piece from the batch can then be processed by the system 20, and the reflectivity of the mail piece compared to the benchmark (or some associated range around the benchmark) established by the reference medium. If the reflectivity of the mail piece is within the associated range, the controller 24 can determine that the mail pieces of the batch are light and that a low resolution can be utilized to print on the batch of mail pieces.
Based on the determination made by the controller 24, a signal is sent to the printer 22 to adjust the resolution for the mail piece upon which an indicium is about to be printed. The printer 22, in response to receiving the signal from the controller 24, will adjust the resolution at which it will print accordingly, and as the mail piece is passed beneath the printer 22, an indicium will be printed on the mail piece at the resolution specified by the controller 24 for that mail piece.
Referring now to
In step 58, it is determined if the resolution at which the printer 22 will print is set for the determined reflectivity to provide sufficient contrast between the printed image and the mail piece. Thus, for example, for lighter colored mail pieces that have a higher reflectivity, a resolution of 200×300 dpi should provide sufficient contrast. For darker colored mail pieces that have a lower reflectivity, a higher resolution of, for example, 200×600 dpi may be required to provide sufficient contrast. If the resolution is set such that sufficient contrast will be provided, then in step 62 the printer 22 will print the image, i.e., an indicium evidencing payment of postage, on the mail piece at the set resolution. If in step 58 it is determined that the resolution is not set for the determined reflectivity, then in step 60 the resolution is changed for the determined reflectivity and in step 62 the image is printed on the mail piece at the set resolution. It should be noted that the change of the resolution in step 60 can be either from low to high, e.g., 200×300 dpi to 200×600 dpi, or high to low, e.g., 200×600 dpi to 200×300 dpi. Thus, if the printer 22 is currently set at the higher resolution (e.g., 200×600 dpi) based on a previous darker mail piece that was just processed, and a lighter mail piece follows the darker mail piece, the printer 22 will change the resolution to the lower resolution (e.g., 200×300 dpi) for the lighter mail piece, thereby utilizing less ink to print the image on the lighter colored mail piece. Alternatively, the printer 22 could revert back to the default resolution (e.g., 200×300 dpi) after every mail piece, and change to the higher resolution only when a darker colored mail piece is being processed.
By dynamically changing the resolution at which the images are printed by the printer 22 based on the lightness or darkness of the mail piece upon which the images are printed, the mail processing system 20 provides images having sufficient contrast with each mail piece while utilizing less ink, thereby decreasing the operating costs for the mail processing system 20.
Thus, a printing system is provided that dynamically adjusts the resolution at which printing will occur based on the lightness or darkness of the medium upon which the image will be printed. The reflectivity of the medium upon which an image is to be printed is determined, and hence the relative lightness or darkness of the medium. The resolution at which the image will be printed is adjusted based on the determined reflectivity of the medium. For lighter colored mediums, sufficient contrast between the printed image and the medium upon which the image is printed can be maintained utilizing a lower resolution, while a higher resolution must be utilized to maintain sufficient contrast for darker colored mediums. Since the resolution is adjusted for each different medium, it is not necessary to utilize the higher resolution for all mediums to ensure sufficient contrast is always provided, thereby reducing the amount of ink used by the printing system while still ensuring sufficient contrast between the printed image and the medium upon which the image is printed.
While preferred embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated above, it should be understood that these are exemplary of the invention and are not to be considered as limiting. Additions, deletions, substitutions, and other modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be considered as limited by the foregoing description.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4617580 | Miyakawa | Oct 1986 | A |
| 5157253 | Strohmeyer et al. | Oct 1992 | A |
| 5488223 | Austin et al. | Jan 1996 | A |
| 5801722 | Ueda et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
| 6398333 | Mulay et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
| 6435642 | Jackson et al. | Aug 2002 | B1 |
| 6561612 | Minckler | May 2003 | B2 |
| 6612676 | Minckler | Sep 2003 | B1 |
| 6678072 | Matsuoka et al. | Jan 2004 | B1 |
| 6895395 | Blanluet et al. | May 2005 | B1 |
| 20020130182 | Mondie | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20040064424 | Schilling et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20060017758 A1 | Jan 2006 | US |
